Venetian High-Stakes Poker Leads to SHRB Europe in Cyprus
High-stakes poker players have had quite a few options in the live poker arena lately. And there is more on the horizon.
Just recently, the PokerGO Tour took high rollers to the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (SHRPO) in Hollywood, Florida. Five events with buy-ins of $10K to $50K welcomed players to the live tables for points on the PokerGO Tour leaderboard. Of course, there was big money at stake, too. Chris Brewer, Zhuang Ruan, Matthew Sabia, Joe McKeehen, and Sam Soverel claimed victories there.
Without delay, the Venetian in Las Vegas set up four high-stakes tournaments to keep the big money exchanging hands.
Venetian Event 1 of 4: $10K NLHE
A modest but recognizable crowd of high-stakes poker players gathered for the first of the Venetian High Roller events in Las Vegas in mid-August. The first $10K buy-in resulted in:
-Total entries: 30
-Total prize pool: $300K
-Total players paid: 5
As the money bubble approached, Ali Imsirovic and Nick Petrangelo busted, and Andy Park did the honors of busting in sixth place to give the rest of the players at least $21K for their work. Sean Winter was the first to collect, and former chip leader Eric Worre fell to Andrew Lichtenberger in fourth place. Three-handed play started and went on for quite a while, with Cary Katz finally out in third and Lichtenberger finally relegating Anuj Agarwal in second place. Lichtenberger won the tournament for $120K in prize money.
Andrew @luckychewy Lichtenberger wins @VenetianPoker High Roller $10,000 NLH for $120,000!https://t.co/B2SWx0HFjt
— PokerGO Tour (@PokerGOTour) August 13, 2021
Venetian Event 2 of 4: $10K NLHE
The second of the set of four tournaments brought in a few more entries:
-Total entries: 34
-Total prize pool: $340K
-Total players paid: 5
The crowd of players didn’t burst the money bubble lightly, and it took nearly an hour to find Nick Schulman as the bubble boy in sixth place, and the only woman in the field – Katie Wier – took the first payout of $23,800. Imsirovic then busted Sean Winter in fourth place. Katz finished third, leaving Imsirovic to battle Worre heads-up. Imsirovic had a bit of a chip lead at first, and it took him only seven hands to achieve the victory and win $136K.
He does it again‼️ @aliImsirovic wins @PokerGOTour $10,000 NLH @VenetianPoker High Roller for $136,000‼️https://t.co/NLpuwa6hzB
— PokerGO Tour (@PokerGOTour) August 15, 2021
Venetian Event 3 of 4: $25K NLHE
A slightly smaller group played the higher buy-in event with these results:
-Total entries: 29
-Total prize pool: $725K
-Total players paid: 5
This tournament saw Katz out in seventh and Nick Petrangelo out on the money bubble, courtesy of Sam Soverel. Antonios Roungeris ousted Lichtenberger in fifth place for $50,750, and Sean Perry booted Soverel in fourth. Perry took care of Imsirovic in third and then took a massive stack of chips into heads-up play. Roungeris didn’t take long to give the all-in a try, though it didn’t work and gave him second place. Perry won the tournament for $290K.
Venetian Event 4 of 4: $25K NLHE
This was the smallest field of them all, making for a fairly quick tournament.
-Total entries: 14
-Total prize pool: $350K
-Total players paid: 3
Technically, there were only two players scheduled to receive payouts, but after Cary Katz eliminated Chris Brewer in fourth place, the final three made a payout deal. All three of the finalists had similar chip stacks, so the three agreed to a chop. Lichtenberger had slightly more chips than the others, so he won. That gave Petrangelo a $103,520 payout, left Katz with $121,130, and gave Lichtenberger his second win in four tournaments and $125,350 to go with it.
Andrew Lichtenberger, @aliImsirovic & @seanmperry1 take down @PokerGOTour @VenetianPoker High Rollers‼️
$10K NLH – Andrew Lichtenberger – $120K
$10K NLH – Ali Imsirovic – $136K
$25K NLH – Sean Perry – $290K
$25K NLH – Andrew Lichtenberger – $125,350https://t.co/6vPzeYDtGx— PokerGO Tour (@PokerGOTour) August 16, 2021
On to Cyprus for SHRB Europe
Many high-stakes poker pros then dealt with Covid-19 tests and restrictions to fly to Cyprus. The action was set to start on August 23 at the Merit Royal Hotel Casino in North Cyprus. Merit Poker was the host of the Super High Roller Bowl Europe, and Luxon Pay was its initial sponsor.
But days before the action was set to begin, GGPoker became a cosponsor of the series. GGPoker Head of PR Paul Burke noted, “GGPoker is thrilled to be a sponsor of Super High Roller Series Europe, working in partnership with PokerGO and Luxon Pay to make this year’s event bigger and better than ever.”
PokerGO expected Imsirovic, the leader of the PokerGO Tour leaderboard, to attend, in addition to names like Stephen Chidwick, David Peters, Bryn Kenney, Paul Phua, Tim Adams, Richard Yong, Daniel Cates, and former WSOP Main Event champion Hossein Ensan.
The series of tournaments will offer buy-ins of $25K to $250K, and it will run August 23-31.
-Event 1 (Aug 23): $25K buy-in Short Deck Hold’em
-Event 2 (Aug 24): $25K buy-in NLHE
-Event 3 (Aug 25): $25K buy-in Short Deck Hold’em
-Event 4 (Aug 26): $50K buy-in NLHE
-Event 5 (Aug 27): $50K Short Deck Hold’em
-Event 6 (Aug 28): $50K NLHE
-Event 7 (Aug 29): $100K Short Deck Hold’em
-ME (Aug 30): $250K NLHE Main Event
-Event 8 (Aug 31): $50K Short Deck Hold’em
Are you ready???
@Merit_Poker @GGPoker @luxonpay pic.twitter.com/IKi8oqRcn5
— PokerGO Tour (@PokerGOTour) August 21, 2021
